One Summer: America, 1927 (2013)Not even much survives as memory. Many of the most notable names of the summer—Richard Byrd, Sacco and Vanzetti, Gene Tunney, even Charles Lindbergh—are rarely encountered now, and most of the others are never heard at all. So it is perhaps worth pausing for a moment to remember just some of the things that happened that summer: Babe Ruth hit sixty home runs. The Federal Reserve made the mistake that precipitated the stock market crash. Al Capone enjoyed his last summer of eminence. The Jazz Singer was filmed. Television was created. Radio came of age. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. President Coolidge chose not to run. Work began on Mount Rushmore. The Mississippi flooded as it never had before. A madman in Michigan blew up a school and killed forty-four people in the worst slaughter of children in American history. Henry Ford stopped making the Model T and promised to stop insulting Jews. And a kid from Minnesota flew across an ocean and captivated the planet in a way it had never been captivated before. Whatever else it was, it was one hell of a summer.It's kind of equal parts depressing and encouraging how many of the stories in Bill Bryson's account of one summer in America, 1927, parallel so many from 2020. Truly, history may not repeat itself, but it does at least rhyme. Of course, the two main characters of the book are Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth, and their stories have been covered in more depth in single volumes. Likewise, Calvin Coolidge, Henry Ford, Jack Dempsey, Philo Farnsworth and a host of others who feature herein. But this is an old-fashioned history, like Frederick Lewis Allen's Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s or William Manchester's Glory and the Dream, and happily sacrifices some precision for narrative scope. Thus, we don't just get the technological achievements but also the social disruption, even destruction they bring: swap out social media for talking pictures and tv. We get not just sports heroes, but their feet of clay: Bill Tilden as the Tiger Woods of his time. The floods of that year are as reminiscent of our fires and power failures as the violent Anarchism of Sacco and Vanzetti is of our Capital insurrectionists and the mass murder at a public school seems like it could be a headline tomorrow. That Mr. Bryson manages to keep so many plates spinning more than makes up for any misstated details that critics have complained about and his response to a whinge about the lack of footnotes is dispositive. It's just a terrific read and if it leaves you wanting to know more about specific incidents and characters, even better. (Reviewed:) Grade: (A) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Bill Bryson -FILMOGRAPHY: Bill Bryson -BOOK SITE: A Walk in the Woods (Penguin Random House) -WIKIPEDIA: A Walk in the Woods (book) -ESSAY: You Gotta Have Friends. Which is Damned Unfortunate.: Tackling the Appalachian Trail on a whim would require a few essentials. I realized, foremost among them a boon companion. What I got was Katz. (Bill Bryson, April 1998, Outside) -EXCERPT: from A Walk in the Woods (Book Browse) -EXCERPT: from A Walk in the Woods (LitHub) -ESSAY: This green and pleasant land (Bill Bryson, 9 Jul 2007, The Guardian) -STUDY GUIDE: A Walk in the Woods (Lit Charts) -READERS GUIDE: A Walk in the Woods (Lit Lovers) -READING GROUP: Reader's Den: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Elizabeth Waters, AskNYPL) -READERS GUIDE: A Walk in the Woods (Discover BCCLS) -PROFILE: Bill Bryson: It’s impossible to be sick of England: The author on love, loss and the wonders of the human body (Leaf Arbuthnot, 18 April 2020, The Spectator) -VIDEO INTERVIEW: Bill Bryson on One Summer: America 1927 (Waterstones, Sep 26, 2013) -PROFILE: Bill Bryson says he's retiring – is he really putting away his pen?: The beloved American author will be sorely missed, but some writers find it hard to call time on a literary career (Alison Flood, 15 Oct 2020, The Guardian) -INTERVIEW: 'No tree has ever changed my life' (Juliette Jowit, 7 May 2006, The Guardian) -INTERVIEW: Lead the way: Bill Bryson usually travels alone, but this year he joined the judges at the Wanderlust Guide awards and found out what he has been missing (Simon Mills, 13 Oct 2007, The Guardian) -INTERVIEW: Bill Bryson: ‘When I came here the UK was poorer but much better looked after’: The author speaks to Nicholas Wroe about his childhood, the need for higher taxes in Britain and how he never wanted to be a travel writer (Nicholas Wroe, 14 Mar 2015, The Guardian) -INTERVIEW: BEA 2013: Bill Bryson: Serendipitous Summer (Hilary S. Kayle, May 31, 2013, Publishers Weekly) -INTERVIEW: PW: Bill Bryson: An Ex-expat Traveling Light (Norman Oder, May 04, 1998, Publishers Weekly) -INTERVIEW: A Different Kind of Journey: PW Talks with Bill Bryson (Sarah F. Gold, Apr 07, 2003, Publishers Weekly) -INTERVIEW: Bill Bryson on what happened when Robert Redford demanded to play him in A Walk in the Woods (Radio Times) -INTERVIEW: Q&A: Bill Bryson, author – ‘When did I last cry? When the Guardian called me a scaremonger’ (Rosanna Greenstreet, 20 Feb 2016, The Guardian) -INTERVIEW: Bill Bryson on the End of Walking: A Walk in the Woods, starring Nick Nolte and Robert Redford, comes out this week. (BEN RYDER HOWE, SEP 4, 2015, Town & Country) -INTERVIEW: Bill Bryson interview: "I enjoy the preposterousness of life": The legendary travel author talks road trips, great guides, and his favouite place on earth (hint: it's not where you'd expect!) (Wanderlust, 1/01/15) -ESSAY: 5 Reasons to Read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods Before You See the Movie (Molly Schoemann-McCann, August 17, 2015, B&N Review) -PROFILE: The real life of Bill Bryson's 'Stephen Katz' (Mike Kilen, 9/01/15, The Des Moines Register) -ESSAY: Including Appalachian Stereotypes in Multicultural Education: An Analysis of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods (Mary Jean Ronan Herzog, Spring 1999, Journal of Appalachian Studies) -ESSAY: AMERICA'S APPALACHIAN TRAIL: FOLLOW IN BILL BRYSON'S FOOTSTEPS WITH 'A WALK IN THE WOODS': The writer's account of an exhausting trek in the remote Appalachians has been turned into a film. Andrew Eames follows his footsteps into the woods (Andrew Eames, 11 September 2015, Independent) -ESSAY: Scaremongers like Bill Bryson reinforce harmful green belt myths: Suggest that just a small fraction of green belt land could meet our housing needs and the nimbys accuse you of wanting to concrete over all of it (Colin Wiles, 11/25/16, The Guardian) -ESSAY: Bill Bryson responds to scathing review of "One Summer: America 1927": The bestselling travelogue writer defends himself against Douglas Brinkley's brutal takedown (PRACHI GUPTA, NOVEMBER 11, 2013, Salon) - -VIDEO ARCHIVES: Bill Bryson (You Tube) -REVIEW ARCHIVE: Bill Bryson (Kirkus) -ARCHIVES: Bill Bryson (NPR) -ARCHIVES: Bill Bryson (The Guardian) -ARCHIVES: Bill Bryson (Outside) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Dwight Garner, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, NY Times) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods () -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Robert Moor, The New Yorker) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Mark Luccarilli, Terrain.org) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Reader's Lane) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Georgia Stephens, Times [uk]) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Rose Bogard, The Communicator) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Ronald Turnbull, UK Hill Walking) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Let's Be Wild) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Environment and Society Portal) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (For the Love of Wanderlust) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Discover Walking) -REVIEW: of A Walk in the Woods (Ton of Worms) -REVIEW: of The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Matt Ridley, The Sunday Times uk) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Jasper Rees, The Telegraph) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Ian Critchley, The Times uk) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Jonathon Mirsky, The Spectator) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Library Journal) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Christopher Bray, The Observer) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Sarah Churchwell, The Guardian) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Kevin Baker, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Douglas Brinkley, Washington Post) -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (Jillian Abbott, NY Journal of Books -REVIEW: of One Summer: America, 1927 (David M. 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